The external debt of the private sector totaled USD 87,405 million as of 31.12.22, registering a quarterly fall of USD 5,026 million explained by both commercial debt and financial debt. With respect to the same quarter of 2021, external debt showed an increase of USD 10,635 million, explained by the increase in commercial debt by USD 12,735 million, while financial debt showed a decrease of USD 2,100 million.
The external commercial debt of the private sector totaled USD 49,150 million as of 31.12.22, with a fall of USD 4,031 million in the quarter.
The external debt for exports of goods totaled USD 7,418 million as of 12/31/22, showing a fall of USD 3,599 million compared to the previous quarter and an increase of USD 2,350 million compared to the same period in 2021. The quarterly decline is partly explained by the cancellation of trade advances and pre-financing granted by foreign financial institutions taken in the third quarter within the framework of the “Export Increase Program” (Decree 576/22). However, this drop was nuanced since at the end of November the second edition of the “Export Increase Program” (Decree 787/22) was launched.
External debt for imports of goods totaled USD 30,942 million as of 12/31/22, showing a decrease of USD 824 million in the quarter and an increase of USD 8,604 million in the year-on-year comparison.
External debt for services reached USD 10,790 million as of 12/31/22, registering a record value since the beginning of the series, with an increase of USD 392 million compared to the previous quarter and accumulating an increase of USD 1,781 million in the year-on-year comparison.
As of 16.09.20, through Communication “A” 7106 and later through Communication “A” 7230, “A” 7422, “A” 7466 and “A” 7621, in line with the efforts made by the National State and after having successfully completed the process of restructuring the sovereign debt in foreign currency, the BCRA established the guidelines under which private sector companies could initiate a process of refinancing their financial debts abroad and/or local debt securities denominated in foreign currency, which would allow their maturity profile to be adapted to the guidelines required for the normal functioning of the foreign exchange market. In this context, as of the renegotiations registered during 2022, net payments made through the foreign exchange market represented 39% of the original maturities, impacting on lower net purchases of about USD 2,300 million. In this way, lower net payments of about USD 4,800 million were accumulated from the issuance of the original rule until the end of December 2022.
